Marintiana City- 11 years into the future

"Any questions?" I asked to the children seated in front of me.

"No, Mr. Julius" shouted the children.

"Then go out and catch a water type! There should be many around because YOU ARE UNDERWATER!!" I said to the retreating backs. I was 26 years old and a gym leader of my own city, which was unlike many others as it was underwater, enclosed by a glass dome.

"Raven! Come here right now!"

Brad was calling me. "Coming, coming" I replied monotonously.

"Get me some water!" said Brad. He was lying on his bed as usual, with Karen beside him, crying.

"Who is this girl?" asked Brad haughtily.

"Your girlfriend…" I replied.

"Now get me some water!" said Brad

"I’m going!" I replied patiently. About 5 minutes later, I was back in Brad’s room with a glass of water.

"Karen stop crying!" I said sympathetically as I handed Brad his water. "It was not your fault it happened! It was fate!"

"I should have gone with him! I should have!" said Karen. Her pretty face was covered with bruises and scars and tears.

"This water is only 57 degrees! I wanted water with a temperature of 57.05 degrees!" said Brad with a thermometer in his hand.

"I’ll go and get it!" said Karen, still crying. Still crying after 11 years. I took a seat beside Brad. There were tears in his eyes.

"I wanted water at 57.05 degrees not 57!" said Brad crying.

"Don’t worry. Karen is getting your ‘57.05 degree- water now’ I replied. The tears disappeared all at once and his face was illuminated by a smile. "I like Karen!" said Brad and started playing with his toys, which were scattered all around him.

"Mr. Julius! I caught a pokemon!" came a voice from the gym’s entrance.

"I’ll see you later Brad!" I said to Brad and exited the room.

"What did you catch Marina?" I asked the 7-year-old girl.

"This!" she said "Go! Aqua!"

Out of the pokeball came a Bubbla . "Bubby-la Bubby-la-Bubby-la Bubbla!!" said the bouncing Bubbla.

"Good Job!" I said "Here is a TM for it. It’s Water-Cannon. It’s a stronger than bubble-beam but weaker than surf. See you tomorrow!"

"Thanks Mr. Julius!" said Marina and walked out the gym with Aqua in her hand. There would be more kids coming, with their newly caught pokemon. As a gym-leader, it was my duty to teach kids who wanted to be trainers, about pokemon. And I thought kids about water types. After about 17 kids who had mostly captured Bubblas and Magikarps, I resided back to Brad’s room. Karen was sleeping and so was Brad. Karen was shivering. I draped a blanket around her and went back to the gym, hoping there would be some challengers.

I almost dozed off, when I heard the door open. It was a trainer.

"I am Alex and I’ve come to challenge you!"

"You must be pretty tough to have come all the way here!" I said. As a rule I had made up for the gym, trainers weren't allowed to use the underwater tunnel, through which most visitors and other people enter Marintiana. They were supposed to find a secret way to the city from clues the guard at the entrance of the tunnel gave them. The clues changed everyday and if a trainer entered the tunnel, he could not battle in my gym. The door to the entrance of the glass dome, has a pokedex slot in it, where the residents of Marintiana, who are all ex-trainers or past- trainers, insert their pokedex. If the pokedex matches the code in the doors, then the door opens. If the code doesn’t match, the guards catch the intruder and send him to the surface.

"Yeah, Yeah!" said Alex "Let the battle begin"

"The pokemon center is on the other side of town" I said to Alex. Another battle won. I stared out the window. There were Goldeen swimming with Gyrados. Gyrados swimming with Bubblas. Bubblas teaching Magikarp to swim. If only humans were like that when I was a trainer. No killings. No wars. No fights. No bombings. No terrorism. Even pokemon know how to get along with each other. And humans are the most intelligent species on earth. Yes. It was hate that caused the incidents to happen. Hate. Hate caused Brad to become mentally ill. Hate that killed some of my closest friends. Hate that tore apart loved ones. Hate that caused enemies to die. Yet, could it all be hate or was the culprit fate? People CAN control their own fate right? Then why wasn’t I able to control the incidents? Was it all my fault? My fault that all of this happened? If it was, then I apologize to everyone who was affected by it. Brad. Karen. Rainer. Matt. Dan. Even Lucasha and Rathri. And the other pokemon. I remember the incident asthough it happened yesterday. It all started 15 years ago, when I was 14… And on the road to the City of Pearls.

_______ That was a weird story… Sorry if it was boring. E-mail raven17872000@yahoo.com for comments, suggestions._______*